The Nutrition Coordinating Center (NCC) at the University of Minnesota maintains a highly standardized Nutrition Data System for collecting and analyzing dietary data at a level of specificity required by studies investigating relationships between diet and disease. The major objectives of this application are: to provide a continually updated dietary data collection and analysis system which reflects the rapidly changing foods marketplace and expanding research interests; to take advantage of technological advances to improve the accuracy and efficiency of data processing and system maintenance; to meet the increasing demands of research and clinical counseling through the development of dietary assessment and intervention tools including a microcomputer-based system providing interactive data collection and automatic coding and calculation of food intake data; and to conduct research projects designed to evaluate various components of the NCC Nutrition Data System. Evaluation projects include the assessment of the validity and reliability of procedures for imputing nutrient data; comparison of successive versions of the NCC nutrient database to determine overall impact of nutrient updates on nutrient calculations; validation of the NCC Nutrition Data System by comparison of nutrient calculations with chemical analysis of food intakes; comparison of the microcomputer-based system with the current on-line coding and mainframe-based calculation system; and clinical testing and evaluation of the microcomputer system. The capacity of the NCC to serve as a national and international resource center for nutrition research and education will be enhanced through a formative evaluation to assess user needs, improved methods of retrieving information from NCC resources, conducting a national workshop on diet assessment methodology, and increasing the visibility of the Nutrition Data System through publications in professional journals and presentations and demonstrations at professional meetings. An Advisory Committee will be convened annually to provide direction in establishing priorities for NCC activities.